


Returning the Favor

by gray_autumn_sky



Series: Underworld Fics [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-13 20:33:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15372771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gray_autumn_sky/pseuds/gray_autumn_sky
Summary: When Robin is missing his children, Regina comforts him. A little cuddly OQ in the Underworld.





	Returning the Favor

“You look like you’re a million miles away,” Regina murmurs, as she sinks down beside him, pushing her fingers through the back of his hair before settling her arm around his shoulders and dropping a light kiss onto his cheek.

“I was just…” He looks back at her and his features soften. “I’m just tired.”

She nods and takes a breath, as she drags her fingers back and forth over his shoulder. “Or…could it be that you’re missing them?” Robin looks away and presses his eyes closed, giving himself away. “You can talk to me about her.”

Robin nods, “I know.”

“Do you?”

With a sigh, he looks back at her. “I know. It’s just…I know that it’s hard for you.”

“It is,” Regina agrees. “But, it won’t always be—and it’s more complicated than that.” A small grin tugs at the corner of her mouth. “And I love you. I don’t want you to feel like there are parts of your life you can’t share with me.”

“I love you, too,” he replies in a way that’s both automatic and sincere.

Reaching out, she touches her fingers to his stubbly cheek, tracing two fingers along his jaw, smiling when he smiles and his eyes shift up to look a her. “Then talk to me.”

He nods and takes a breath. “I just…I remember those first few weeks with Roland and how important they were to me, how important they were for us. In those first weeks I learned his cries—I knew exactly what he wanted, exactly what he needed and he…he knew that I was there for him, that…” His voice halts and momentarily, he looks away. But she draws him back, gently turning his chin toward her as she smiles warmly, urging him to continue. “I’m missing that with my daughter, I’m missing time that I will never be able to get back.”

Regina lets out a shallow breath as guilt stabs at her heart. “I know,” she murmurs, not knowing what else to say. She knows what he’s feeling—she knows better than most what it’s like to be separated from a child. She understands how that feeling of loss becomes physically painful—remembering how a knot had formed in her stomach the moment she’d said goodbye, tightening every time she thought of her son, squeezing her core and making it difficult to breathe whenever she considered what might have been, and she remembers the pangs of guilt that stabbed at her heart whenever she remembered that it had all been her choice.

Robin’s hand finds her hip and he draws her closer. “I know you do.”

Resting her head against his, she rubs her hand comfortingly over his arm. “They know you love them.”

“Do they?” He asks as their eyes meet. “Roland—he knows that I love him, but my daughter? She can’t know,” he says, his voice breaking as he presses his eyes closed. “I didn’t even spend enough time with her to give her a name.”

“Okay,” Regina begins, picking her head up from his. “Why don’t we change that?” Robin’s brow furrows and she smiles. “Let’s name her.”

A small smile tugs at the corner of his mouth and he offers her a lopsided grin, “You…you want us to name her.”

“Well, if we leave it up to her mother, she’s have some horrible name like…Viridian or Chartreuse or Juniper.”

He chuckles softly, “Juniper is kind of cute.”

“We are  _not_  naming her anything  _green_ ,” Regina tells him in a firm voice. “And no Lima or Pistachio or any other foods.”

His chuckle turns to a laugh, “That’s fair. Are there other rules to this naming game?”

“No, just those,” she tells him, her smile brightening. “And maybe something else we can consider is what color her room should be.” She watches as Robin’s brow furrows and his lips purse. “I mean, that’s if you want to move in with me and Henry.”

“You want us to move in together?”

“I do,” she admits. “We’re practically living together already. Since you and Roland came back from New York, you and I haven’t spent a night apart and…wouldn’t it be nice to be able to tuck Roland into his own bed when he gets tired after dinner instead of having to leave or to have someone to help with all of those 3am feedings and diaper changes?”

“Those would definitely be perks,” Robin tells her, grinning as arm circles around her waist as he pulls her onto his lap. “But those aren’t the only perks.”

“Oh, no?” Regina asks, her eyes widening as she feigns ignorance—smiling victoriously as he smiles a genuine smile—the first she’s seen since their arrival in the Underworld. “So, really, what do you think? When we get back to Storybrooke do you and Roland and the little Peanut want to move in?”

His smile fades, but his features soften, “Peanut?”

“Oh…” She breathes as a cautious grin stretches across her lips as she scrunches her face. “That’s, um…what I’ve been calling her in my head.”

“Peanut,” Robin says slowly testing it out, “That’s…”

“Dumb, I know,” Regina scoffs. “And it breaks my rule.”

“I like it,” Robin tells her in a decisive voice as she feels her cheeks warm. “It’s a sweet nickname.”

Stretching her arm around him, she rubs her hand against the back of his neck, “So, what do you think?”

“About moving in?” He asks in a way that doesn’t require an answer. “I think Roland, Peanut and I would love to move in with you and Henry.”

Regina feels her heart flutter—her smile deepening as he smiles back at her. And she’s glad to have the opportunity to do for him what he did for her while they were in the Enchanted Forest and she was missing Henry. He couldn’t take away her pain, but he validated it. He never tried to fill the void and never expected her to feel anything she didn’t feel—and by doing that he helped her to forget, even it was just for a few minutes here and there.

“So,” she begins as she presses herself closer, “About that name…”


End file.
